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From January 9 to 11, 2026, Mumbai’s National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) will host the second edition of ADFF:STIR Mumbai 2026, the Indian chapter of the renowned Architecture and Design Film Festival.
Broader in scope and deeper in intent than its South Asian debut in 2025, the event reaffirms itself as a cultural platform capable of going beyond cinema, weaving together architecture, design, art and film storytelling in a multidisciplinary programme comprising film screenings, live conversations, installations and immersive experiences.
Founded in 2009 by New York–based architect and film enthusiast Kyle Bergman, ADFF is today the world’s largest film festival dedicated to architecture and design. Originating in Waitsfield, Vermont, the festival has gradually built an international network of editions and events, while remaining anchored to a core belief: architecture and cinema share the power to tell stories and build worlds.
This second edition of ADFF:STIR Mumbai is structured around four pillars: films, the ~log(ue) talks programme, the Pavilion Park, and Special Projects. Together, they form a cultural ecosystem designed to engage both the creative community and a wider audience. Co-organised by STIR, a global media house and curatorial agency, ADFF Mumbai strengthens its role as a platform for cultural dissemination and as a space for collaboration between South Asia’s creative industries and the international landscape.
The beating heart of the festival remains its film programme, spanning feature films, documentaries and docu-films that offer fresh perspectives on the built environment and its social, environmental and cultural implications. The selected works propose new ways of seeing and interpreting reality, providing valuable insights into the present and the transformations underway, while reaffirming cinema’s role as a critical and narrative tool.
Among the most anticipated highlights of the 2026 edition is the Jaquar Pavilion Park, which will transform the lawns of the NCPA into a true open-air stage for temporary architecture. Supported by Jaquar and curated by Aric Chen, Director of the Zaha Hadid Foundation, the Pavilion Park is built around the theme Mumbai Transcripts, an investigation into the relationships between space, movement and event in the contemporary metropolis.
Conceived as a platform for architectural experimentation, the Pavilion Park invites reflection and interaction, presenting temporary structures that move beyond a purely exhibitionary dimension to become living, participatory spatial experiences.
The curatorial project attracted proposals from 52 architects, designers and artists, reflecting the initiative’s increasingly open and democratic character. From these submissions, a high-profile international jury selected ten projects for realization. Chaired by curator Aric Chen, the jury includes Hans Ulrich Obrist, Artistic Director of the Serpentine Galleries in London; Lesley Lokko, founder of the African Futures Institute in Accra and curator of the 2023 Venice Architecture Biennale; Ma Yansong, founder of MAD Architects; Martha Thorne, former Executive Director of the Pritzker Architecture Prize; and Raj Rewal, founder of Raj Rewal Associates.
The ten pavilions shaping the Jaquar Pavilion Park 2026 are: Mangrove Pavilion by Studio Sangath, Sift by Reddymade, Pentad Pavilion by UHA Global, The Street of Aspiration by SJK Architects, The Pavilion of Conversations by Bose Krishnamachari, Unscripted by Abin Design Studio, The Script by Field Architects, Mountain Transcripts by NORTH, The Mumbai Transcripts by Mathew and Ghosh Architects, and Tectonics of Mumbai by Anagram Architects.
Interpreted through Chen’s curatorial lens, the pavilions explore the dynamic interaction between space, movement and event, suggesting how architecture can generate new social relationships and forms of shared experience. Like a choreography or an urban playground, the installations invite physical and emotional engagement, transforming visitors into active participants.
As part of the Special Projects, this year’s edition presents an installation commissioned from British-Caribbean artist and designer Samuel Ross MBE, titled DIASPORA PASSAGE 01001A. The site-specific work, developed in collaboration with the British Council, STIR and Friedman Benda New York, is conceived as a place for pause and respite. The pavilion features an intimate selection of paintings, drawings, objects and manifesto texts created by Ross and by prominent voices from the community.
With this edition, ADFF:STIR Mumbai establishes itself not only as a film festival, but as a cultural laboratory in which cinema, architecture and design become tools to read, interpret and imagine the future of cities.
In copertina: Sift by Suchi Reddy. © Ram Rahman, courtesy Reddymade
